Welch Says Community Events Are A Touchstone

Congressman Peter Welch, center, meets with Vermonters at KC Bagels in Waterbury in a Congress In Your Community event.

Over the past six years, Rep.
Peter Welch has held almost 150 "Congress in Your Community" events throughout
the state. It's an opportunity for Vermonters to discuss their concerns with
the Congressman in an informal setting.

KC
Bagels in Waterbury is jammed on a cold winter morning with people who
want to spend some time with Congressman Peter Welch.

With
very little fanfare, Welch quietly walks into the store, grabs a cup of coffee
and begins working his way around the room.

While
a number of people want to discuss national issues with Welch, there are others
who are seeking assistance from his office:

"How are you?" Welch asked
Scott Woodard.

"Hey, Scott how are you?"
Welch responds.

"I've got a couple of
veterans questions for you. I'm having some issues with the education benefits
not being able to transfer to my daughter," Woodard said.

"You're supposed to be able
to."

"Well, I retired in 2006 and
it's my understanding that the law went into effect in 2008 anybody who retired
prior to 2008 it's not available," Woodard said.

"Well let me check into it,"
Welch said, and turned to a staff member. "Tim, can we get follow up information
so we can get back to you? I don't know
the answer to that."

"I know you've got a lot on
your plate," Woodard said.

Several
people express their concern that Congress has become a highly partisan and
dysfunctional body. One person asked Welch about his participation in a new
group of Republicans and Democrats that hopes to break through the current
gridlock on a number of issues.

"It's called the No Labels and it's half
Democrats and half Republicans and we have totally different political views in
that group some are real small government some are an active get involved
government yet we're all appreciating the fact that if we just stand on
opposite sides of the line yelling at each other we're not going to get
anything done," Welch explained.

Welch
turns and immediately meets M.K. Morley. She's a teacher at the local
elementary school and she has strong concerns about the reaction of her
students following the tragedy in Newtown Connecticut:

"Yeah,
it was scary. You know, do you want an armed guard in front of your school ?
No, not really."

Tim
Grey is standing next to Morley and has a very different take on this issue. "I'd
like to interject. As someone who's intimately involved in civilian and law
enforcement training, safety training and performance training and who has a
daughter who is a school teacher at Northfield, my daughter after Newtown came to me and she said dad, I think it's finally
time," Grey said.

"Time
for what?"

"Time
for her to investigate some way to protect herself and her students because
there's no other mechanism to protect them .They have a lock down policy all
those kinds of things but we found at Newtown they're just not effective," Grey
said.

Welch
jumps into the conversation and says the respectful discussion that Morley and
Grey are having is exactly what's needed in Washington.

"There's
got to be a willingness on both sides to sit down and discuss issues that are
contentious and the way you do that is through some mutual respect. There's not
a point of view that the person you disagree with is not American, you know
what I mean? So there are divisive issues in this country that we have to tell
with."

"I
look forward to you being part of that solution."

"I
appreciate you being here, that's the point," Welch said.

After
many of the customers have left the store, Welch says he schedules these kinds
of events because they help keep him "grounded" in the real world of working
Vermonters.

"I mean this is not Washington. This is Waterbury at a breakfast spot here and it's everyday folks
going about everyday lives and it just is such a focus on what the real world
concerns are for Vermonters that it really is a touchstone for me and doing my job
in Washington and it's pretty easy to get out of touch in Washington," Welch said.

In
January 2011, Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot while she was holding a
"Congress in Your Community" event outside of a supermarket in Tucson.

Following
that shooting, House leaders suggested that members consider having security
with them when they hold these kinds of events.
Welch rejected that advice because he says he feels perfectly safe in Vermont.

"To me that would get in the way of the
interaction. What's nice about this I can walk in alone and just sit around and
I'm very accessible. There's no big deal about this I'm just Peter I happen to
be in Congress and I'm here and people feel quite a bit at ease talking about
what's on their mind and you know you come in a make a big deal out of it I'll
be a total different kind of interaction," Welch said.

Welch
will hold his next "Congress In Your Community" event in St. Albans a week from Saturday.